(Philadelphia commerce director Alan Greenberger, right, reads a statement to the committee of Pennsylvania legislators today in City Council chambers. Photo by Mike Dunn)

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A top official with the Nutter administration told Pennsylvania state lawmakers today that if they relocate the now-revoked license for the Foxwoods casino, it is best kept in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia City Hall was the location for a state House committee hearing on a bill that would put the city’s second casino license up for bid, and possibly relocate it elsewhere in the state.

The state lawmakers openly wondered if the market was already saturated with the Harrah’s, Sugarhouse, and Parx casinos in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

City commerce director Alan Greenberger said that may be, but putting the casino in a more rural location might not make sense.

“This is still the largest population base in the state,” he told the legislators. “So our sense — and this is not reading into the tea leaves — (is) that this is probably still where the most successful operation is likeliest to be.”

Greenberger spoke of Market Street East as a site where a casino could spur other development, but he later told reports the administration is not pushing that particular location.